The Girl, The Gold Watch, And Everything

A red zone of my existence.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

Weigraf but make it Marx:

[h0lyshift]

The older i get the more i understand why some people become obsessed with privacy, not because they’re hiding something, but because being constantly perceived starts to feel spiritually exhausting.

[melyzard]

Did you know that soda machines at restaurants and movie theaters spy on you? That most common new cars now record your sexual preferences and send it to the manufacturer (and also data about anyone who also gets in your car, walks by your car, and maybe happens to be within visual range of your car)? That grocery stores are trying to force customers to download an app to scan barcodes on shelves instead of putting up prices, so the app can scan the phone, decide how much that customer should be squeezed for, and adjust the price? That more and more innocent people are being sent to jail for crimes committed hundreds of miles away because an AI facial recognition algorithm spit their faces out and the cops didn't bother to do the most basic of checks?

I am not uptight about privacy because I'm hiding something. I'm uptight about it because the people who dismiss my right to privacy are dangerous to you and me and our families, personally, all the time.

And often, they are assholes, too.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

I don't remember the last time I NEVER saw another person for miles.

I used to drive for work in the before times where it was me and the open road for 2 days.

Yesterday on the fourth of July I didn't see a single person. No one was on the road. People didn't come in. People didn't come out. I saw a white tail deer. A family of baby mergansers, and a school of trout. But no one touched the pavement. No one stirred up the dust. No human was visible for miles in all directions and I think it really healed my mind.

I finished the two books I was reading. Showered in the wild. And did a few chores to keep the world nice out there. But I think I can feel the hermit calling.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

Somehow Margot robbie and I are like the same age.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

The prompt:

You prick your finger and go to sign the contract of the demon, however as soon as they see your blood they try to call off the deal.

My writing:

We shook hands. I had read the thing three times. I had made edits. So had it. We had bickered and argued over they way words could be used in multiple ways. The whole thing had taken three days. We had to sleep in the same bed so that my roommate wouldn't find out what I was doing.

"So the handshake seals it?" I ask like a hopeful idiot.

"No no, you have to sign." The creatures slumps and slithers next to me and we touch faces staring down at the beautiful piece of bureaucracy. "You will make a great demon someday with work like this. But I need blood to seal the deal."

"I can do that." I take out my box cutter. I think about where it's been... Go out of my room. Find a new blade. Replace it. Come back. "Alright how much are we talking."

The rattle at the end of the creatures tail begins to shake. "Just a prick and a flick." It giggles manically. I can tell it is ready for this and just as eager as I am to move on to the next phase.

I stab the end of my left pointer. A small bead wells up. The creature with its appendages comes in close to take a quick look. Like the pricking is a part of the ritual. It takes a deep sniff into it's high and boney nostrils. "Wait one second please." It then licks my finger in a way I wouldn't describe as the opposite of sexual but i don't think I have ever had my finger more critically analyzed. "Sorry, the deal is off. I can't fulfill my end of the bargain."

"What?"

"What do you mean what?"

"What do you mean that you can't fulfill your end of the bargain? We spent three God Damned Fucking days on this."

"Please watch you language," it chastises me.

I roll my eyes and mutter " You, Catholics." and it replies with a toothy grin clearly offended.

"Sorry." I mutter. "Let me clarify. So the deal is off because of something or some quality of my blood?"

"That is correct."

"Can I ask why?... Or is that rude."

"It isn't rude but I cannot buy, manipulate, or borrow the soul of a creature that doesn't have one." He points to subsection lambda of clauses C. D. and E. in the 9th part of our contract.

"I... don't have a soul?"

"That I know nothing about kiddo." It begins packing up it's things. "If you don't mind can I keep the contract. We did do a lot of work on it and I can use it to revise contracts in the future."

"Only if you pay me for my work." I say with a wink.

"Oh ho, a new bargain." The creatures with its appendages begins putting things back and summons new paper and ink and we start again.

It isn't much but we both smile as we head right back into more paperwork. "I recommend getting some information out of me about where to begin looking for your soul as a part of your payment for your work on our contract."

"What a polite thing for a demon to offer." I say with a smile.

"I am a demon, not a monster."

[inkwellgalleon]

I've been doing ACEO's because my wife says the kids are into them. All of them are on water color paper. All of them are water color and ink pen. I will post them in batches. I do not have them for sale yet but maybe I will.

[inkwellgalleon]

Second batch of ACEO's These ones are all landscape the others were all portrait shape.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

The prompt:

Your doctor looked at you with concern and handed you a referral to a remote part of the hospital. Your hands shook as the paper initially appeared to say Department of Oncology. Now your knees go weak as you see it actually reads Department of Ontology.

My writing:

The woman walked down the hallway to the far end. Out the door. She stared across the vast expanse of the parking lot to the "temporary building" that looks like it had been there for years. A fancy trailer with a ramp up to it and an ac unit in the window. On the door the letters read. Ontology Department.

She walked towards the building as if what was wrong with her was a sentence to the gallows, and the doc in side was the hangman. She looked down at her referral note then back up and it was like the door manifested itself in front of her. The large expanse erased. She looked back at the parking lot. Not so large after all.

knock knock knock

"Come in." A small mans voice sounded through the thin door. She touched the handle and went inside.

"What is?" Said the Doctor. He was an old man, wrinkles, liver spots, a hair cut like Larry David. She could have thought to her self how young bald men don't cut their hair like that anymore. What was that hair cut even called? She pipped up. "Don't you mean... What is the matter?"

"Oh no, I don't. What is? as distinct from... What is not. And what is not, is you did not come here for no reason. So you must ...is."

"I must is... what?"

"You must is. So we know that isn't your problem. Please hand me your referral and I'll go over it and your chart. Please find a seat. I will be right back." The doctor hummed.

The woman handed him the things he asked for. She didn't remember having her own chart but she was able to produce it when he asked. That didn't seem right. She sat in the only chair in the small space as the man vanished behind a door she hadn't noticed behind the desk.

She pulled out her phone and stared at her reflection in the black mirror. The sleepless face stared back. Just then she heard a bang from behind the fake wall with the thin door. The old man popped back out behind the desk. "Well it seems here that you REALLY ARE."

"What?" She said really stupidly. She thought she sounded stupid. She could tell he thought she sounded stupid too.

"Okay well how to explain. You see... If we exist. And some think we don't... and there is evidence of that. But you REALLY ARE. Which means you definitely exist. And so, if you really exist then it stands to reason that you have always, and will always exist. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

She looked the man up and down from where she could see above the desk. "No. But not in a dumb way, in a way where I don't know how existing has been causing my... issue. Wouldn't existing mean that my issue is real and normal and I can go back to..." And the quiet polite woman pointed back at the normal halls of the large hospital.

"Yes, and well, No. You see, when we know you exist, and we know that you always will and always have existed. That means you're important. Important is good. But It's also... well it's bad. You're medical issue is a matter of it needing to exist because it is important, and therefore you have become important you see? But It has already happened, in the future, because it always happens. Because you exist. So, the you here, is feeling whiplash from the event that hasn't yet come to be... yet."

"So... I AM sick?"

"Well, no... Not yet."

"So, what can you do for me today?"

"OH! That is easy. I'm going to get you a bunch of labs done and prescribe you anti-anxiety medication." The old man laughs as hearty as old men laugh when you know they smoke.

"And, you can do that? I thought you had to be ..." She pauses forgetting the word for the doctor that gives out meds.

"I don't actually have to be. Which is why I am in charge of Ontology, dear." And with that he hands her a piece of paper. "Go get this prescription filled out." And he points to the door. So she steps outside to obey his commands. Just then, in the bitter sun, she remembers the word. "PSYCHIATRIST!" In a too out-loud embarrassing, kind of way. She turns back to make sure he didn't hear her.

The building was gone. She was on the ramp back to the parking lot. A ramp to what wasn't.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

Felt cute might delete later.

[inkwellgalleon]

Ragatha from the amazing digital circus. 2026

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

Gotta say I'm enjoying Spider-noir so far. I love black and white media. I like how all the characters are reimagined so far.

It's got tombstone, and blackcat, and sandman, and all kinds of stuff and people.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

Insane that blackwing never shows up or is mentioned or ever brought up for his dad being the main protagonist the entire show.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

Gotta say I'm enjoying Spider-noir so far. I love black and white media. I like how all the characters are reimagined so far.

It's got tombstone, and blackcat, and sandman, and all kinds of stuff and people.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

(the prompt)

an army of mages from a fantasy world are transported to ours to teach magic to fight the incoming threat through magic language. However that same language looks exactly like the old new language you and your childhood imaginary best friend made up when you were a kid

(My writing)

The Announcement comes over the television. It's all over social media. "They are coming you must be able to defend yourselves." I'm an accountant. I don't spend my time thinking about it until the High Wizards came through the portal. I was at my sisters house baby sitting. Staring at Bluey when the program was replaced by the feed. Me and my kid niece watched them come through she was smiling at the weird people pointing and laughing. They didn't quite look like us but for the most part were human shaped. Then she said something that made me freeze in my tracks. "They are dressed like my friend Dalton."

The name brought years crashing down around me and I turned my head slowly to hers. "Hey, kiddo who is Dalton?" She smiles and points, "He is my imaginary friend and he doesn't look like those guys but he dresses like them." I had once had an imaginary friend named Dalton. I remember him now only because she mentioned him. I looked back at their clothing. It was the same as his had been. "Do you have any drawings of Dalton?"

The two of us rush up to her room to the pile of toys and board games littering the floor. We sift through her child toy shit until we find a stack of papers and we find Dalton. Green skin, Red hair, A scar. The scar was new but it looked like MY Dalton. "Hey Alice, how long have you known Dalton?" She hesitates and smiles up at me with a turned head. "Oh, I dunno like a year?" and I watch as she does some math on her one hand. "I'm this many." She puts up all 5 fingers. "I was this many." She puts up 4 fingers on her other hand in a way that is cuter than it should be. I bend down so we are eye to eye. "Has he taught you any words?"

The two of us make it to my Mom's house in less than an hour. No one was on the freeway because of the news and I was speeding like my life depended on it. Hoping that it doesn't. I still take the time to make sure Alice is out of her safety seat and I carry her up the stairs to the landing and pound on the door. "Mom Dad are you home?" There was a crash. A yip. an "awe danggit" then finally a "Just a minute!"

My dad was covered in cobbler. "Blackberry's were on sale." He says embarrassed. As he opens the door, he reveals his front is covered. Alice can't help but laugh. "Dad," I start, "Do you guys have all my childhood drawings?" He looks up from wiping himself off a little. "Yeah boyo. You know your mother," Then he raises his voice. "SHE NEVER THROWS ANYTHING AWAY." An argument they seem to have 100 times a day.

Me and Alice get mom and trudge up the stairs. She is fumbling through her piles of my old stuff. A black three ring binder with loose pages falling out is the key. In white paint marker it reads. "Art by Teddy." In a single motion I trade the child for the binder and rip through it.

When I reach the page there is my drawing of Dalton. I hold it up to Alice's. Same colors, same hair, same clothing.

"What is this?" My mom says.

"Do you remember my obsession with my imaginary friend Dalton?"

"Yeah you spoke in tongues for years son. We had to go to a specialist." She mouths "exorcist" so that she doesn't seem to want to bring up how I was filled with the 'devil' in case of relapse.

"I'll show you." I find the remote to the old CRTV in my old bedroom. Covered in a layer of dust. Sure as shine it whines on with a thunk and the news broadcast is still playing. The wizards are meeting with heads of state. "Yeah your father and I were watching it down stairs, crazy right? What about it?"

I hold up the drawings next to the t.v.

She freezes.

"HONEY." My mom yells for my dad. Just then there is a knock at the door.

"JUST A MINUTE SOMEONE IS HERE."

We all rush down stairs. He is standing there. New scar on his face. But i'd recognize him anywhere.

Dalton Stood in my childhood doorway.

[kingdomofthelandofthelost]

(The prompt)

Flunking out of the Mech Piloting Course was a low point for you; getting disowned and falling out of nobility, that hurt more. But adjusting to a new normal, honestly, wasn't bad. You even saved up credits for a vacation for once, sadly pirates attacked...but you manage to steal an old Mech

(my writing)

The legacy wasn't mine, the name was given, the honor was borrowed. None of those things I managed to do on my own. It felt good to be able to stretch free of the bonds of my family. I was the oldest. It was my duty to represent us in all things. Biggest sister means biggest responsibilities. I heard that my entire life... but what it sounded like was biggest sister means biggest shackles and I lived under the oppressive regime of a family that only loved me for what I could do and not who I was.

The pressure was too much and it wasn't long before I cracked like a glass door being turned wrong. I couldn't finish my mech course. Not because I wasn't good but because the depression claimed me. I was actually the best. Best doesn't mean anything if you can't show up to classes. I knew I wouldn't be allowed to commit suicide so I tried to do nothing instead. It was a haze of my life, a lot of it crying in the dark. At first a week, then a month, then two. It was coming up on a year and they kicked me out of the house. A disgrace, a dishonor, and I was disowned.

I was broken up at first but I spent a week on a friends couch away from all the pressure and all of a sudden I felt way less flat. She helped me get a job at a local grocery store. Produce. I was good at everything I applied myself too because I didn't know how to half-ass anything. Perfection baked into me like a trauma shaped toaster burn. Within 6 months I was head of my department. Within another I had full time enough to accumulate some paid vacation.

My flight was last night. My cruise boarded this morning. A lot has happened since then.

They must have came on board with us. I didn't think anything of them because this was my first time out of the country. They were chromed out and marked. They had matching Hawaiian shirts like they had gotten a discount price for ordering bulk.

When the gunshots happened I panicked and jumped overboard. I hid on the inside of a dingy along the hull until their raiding boats flanked the ship. When they tied off and climbed up and the gunshots died down I jumped to one of their boats. I thought I would just cut myself loose and make a clean escape. Go back to my corner of the fruit stand in the market and hope I never get noticed.

Once under the deck I saw her.

She must have called to me like the sirens call sailors to the rocks because I don't remember getting inside. A lost B37 Panzer Lance. They only made 120 of these off the line because they were too heavy and too small to compete with the models over seas. She was rusted on the ends with spray painted spots to cover the rust from growing. She had to be no bigger than a classic 1900's minivan; one arm a set of fork tines for freight.

I flipped on all the switches and plugged into the interface. Old but not incompatible. She linked up like fingers inside of a glove one size too small and I shuddered at her waking up.

I went through diagnostics as if it was Monday maintenance at the academy. Fuel low, no ammo, shields active, auxiliary battery online.

All limbs were go. I wiggled around a bit to test them. Then climbed on deck. The sun was blinding in her interface the ocean brilliantly blue.

I clicked on the radio to whatever the sea could pick up with a beat that had heavy base. A heavy black metal Japanese classic that went Kachuga Kachuga from the late 40s blared. I put it on speaker so that anyone could hear. I flipped on a sun visor and the boosters and launched myself onto the ship.

By the time I had synced all the drift between me and her, not a single pirate had escaped alive.